Telemedicine center

[ict_of_bangladesh] Telemedicine centre launched
From: "Moderator: ICT of Bangladesh Yahoo Group" <ict_of_bangladesh@yahoo.com>
To: ict_of_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com
FARIDPUR, Aug 11: A telemedicine centre, first of its kind in
Bangladesh, was launched here today to provide distance medical
treatment to patients, reports UNB.
Professor Dr Mohammad Yunus, a noted economist and MD of Grameen Bank
and chairman of Grameen Telecom, inaugurated the centre set up at
Faridpur Diabetic Hospital.
With the launch of the centre, a patient from the area can contact
any specialist physician in Dhaka describing his health problems and
collect prescription through the information superhighway by means of
Internet.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Yunus said local patients, particularly
poor ones, would be benefited much as they would be able to contact
physicians in the capital through the centre.
"Any patient can also take medical suggestion from any foreign
specialist physician soon," he told the function.
Presided over by Professor MA Samad, the function was also addressed
by Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Nasir Uddin Khan and Civil Surgeon Dr
SM Abul Khair Mia.
On the opening day, Basu Dev, 65, a resident of Muksudpur upazila in
Gopalganj district, who has been suffering intestinal diseases along
with diabetics, took prescription directly talking with noted gastric
and liver-disease specialist Professor Dr AK Azad Khan in the
capital.
The telemedicine centre has been set up under the initiative of the
Diabetic Association of Bangladesh, Grameen Telecom, GrameenPhone,
Diabetic Association of Faridpur and noted specialist physicians in
Dhaka.
Any local patient can take prescription from specialist physicians in
the capital through the centre by paying Tk 600 as fee.

Diagnostic kit

Neurosynaptic have successfully built a remote low cost diagnostic kit called ReMeDi that can measure temperature, blood pressure, ECG and heartbeat (stethoscope) and perform other tasks. It won a prize at the World Economic Forum 2007. There was an article in businessweek

Bangalore's Neurosynaptic Communcations is making health care for India's villages accessible and affordable. The company has a $255 portable diagnostic kit that performs five basic health tests, including blood pressure, temperature, and even an electrocardiogram. Used by the village paramedic, results are transmitted back to the closest hospital through any of the multimedia kiosks mushrooming across rural India. The cost to the patient: a rock bottom 63 cents per test. The pioneer of this telemedicine for the masses is Sameer Sawarkar, a former sensor expert at Motorola, who was motivated by the hardships of getting health-care during his childhood in a village.